Amazon will release a 9" Android tablet and two new Kindles, one touch, one not, in October.

Quote:

Amazon.com Inc. plans to introduce a tablet computer before October, said people familiar with the matter, in a move that will heighten the online retailer's rivalry with Apple Inc.

The Seattle-based company will also release two updated versions of its popular Kindle electronic reader in the third quarter of the year, the people said. One will be a touch-screen device. The other won't have a touch screen, but will be an improved and cheaper adaptation of the current Kindle, said people who have seen the device.

The Amazon tablet will have a roughly nine-inch screen, people familiar with the product said, and will run on Google Inc.'s Android operating system. The online retailer isn't designing the device itself, but is outsourcing production to an Asian manufacturer, these people said.

Wow, interesting. I loved the touch screen on my Nook STR but I returned it because it just didn't do some things as well as my K3. If there's a K4 touch, with the best of both the STR and the K3, well, I'll be a happy reader.

Also interested to see what their tablet is going to look like. I'm mighty tempted by the Toshiba Thrive. But I really can't justify the expense.

Why is it the article had to go and flush itself down the toilet in the last paragraph by printing guessing games with sales figures? That was just a stupid thing to do. I don't care who it was that did the guessing and how respected they may be. Without sales figures released, any such thing is just a guess and should not have been put in the article.

The K4 won't handle ePub worth a damn. So if you want to read ePub, stay clear of the K4.

I was wondering when you'd turn up.

Orange! STILL has a Kindle- and returned your beloved epub reading device-, so unless this K4 detonates upon removal from the Amazon packaging, they seem perfectly fine with the Kindle as a platform and an e-reader.

As to the article, I'm still against touch-screen on an e-reader for me... unless they really REALLY make it useful as opposed to just gimmicky.

Orange! STILL has a Kindle- and returned your beloved epub reading device-, so unless this K4 detonates upon removal from the Amazon packaging, they seem perfectly fine with the Kindle as a platform and an e-reader.

As to the article, I'm still against touch-screen on an e-reader for me... unless they really REALLY make it useful as opposed to just gimmicky.

I edited that message and you just happened to catch it mid edit. So can you please go back and edit you message to remove your message as it's not really valid any more?

The K4 won't handle ePub worth a damn. So if you want to read ePub, stay clear of the K4.

I was wondering when you'd turn up.

Orange! STILL has a Kindle- and returned your beloved epub reading device-, so unless this K4 detonates upon removal from the Amazon packaging, they seem perfectly fine with the Kindle as a platform and an e-reader.

Sounds like maybe I've stepped into a topic with some background.

I don't "read epub", I read books. I've heard the argument that mobi is inferior to epub, but mobi seems to be adequate for the type of reading I do (mostly fiction and non-fiction ).

I care more about the attributes of the device than about the formats it supports. I'm sure my opinion isn't shared by everyone, and that's okay with me too.

Why is it the article had to go and flush itself down the toilet in the last paragraph by printing guessing games with sales figures?

The article I read was about the release of an Amazon branded 9" Android tablet and two "next gen" Kindles -- one e-ink with buttons, one e-ink touch. The tablet was not positioned in any way as an "ereader" but, in fact, as a multimedia device -- so it's not directly positioned against the Nook Color.

I am guessing at this point, but it sounded like the "button" e-ink ereader might come in somewhere around $99 -- maybe with less features than the Kindle with Special Offers at $114 -- and the touch edition somewhere around the $139 mark. Shipping in the third quarter probably means something like Sep 1, with the tablet to follow in time for holiday shopping.